Playing music in your business

You need a licence to play copyrighted music in commercial settings. For example:

• pubs, bars and nightclubs
• cafes and restaurants
• gyms
• salons
• factories
• workshops.

It doesn’t matter where the music comes from. For example:

• streaming services

• CDs or records
• radio or TV
• live performances, including DJs

Buying an album or paying for a streaming service only covers personal use. It doesn’t give you the right to play that music in your business.

Some music isn’t covered by copyright so doesn’t need a licence. For example, you generally don’t need permission to use a recording that was made public more than 70 years ago.

You could contact the copyright holder of every song you want to play and ask them for permission. But that’s a lot of work!

An easier way is to get a licence through a copyright collecting society. These organisations collect licence fees for material protected by copyright and distribute the fees to copyright owners.

The authorised collecting societies for music in Australia are:

• APRA AMCOS (the Australian Performing Rights Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Society)
• PPCA (the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia).

These societies have a joint licensing initiative for businesses called OneMusic.

You can pay OneMusic for a single licence that lets you play almost any song in your business. The cost depends on your industry, business size and how you will use the music.